NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi goes against the membership oath Congress members take against social discrimination.
After years of contemplation, Rahul Gandhi joined the Congress and accepted the top positions in the party, first with hesitation and then with great insistence. Following a major electoral defeat, he resigned from his position. The slight success achieved with an opposition alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections appears to have boosted his confidence. However, is he forgetting or attempting to change the terms and conditions of Congress Party membership? In an informal conversation, an old Congress leader expressed concern that “being a member of the Gandhi family, it is possible he doesn’t feel the need to read the membership form, and like a company CEO, he might have signed the form brought by an associate. In any case, he is trying to run the Congress Party in a new way.” “In the first two lines of the affidavit for Congress Party membership, it is written that: I declare that: I am 18 years of age or older. I am accustomed to wearing certified Khadi. I keep myself away from intoxicating drinks and drugs. I neither practise social discrimination nor endorse it in any form and pledge to work towards its eradication.”
How can a person who has taken a pledge not to discriminate based on caste and religion make declarations to fight on every front for “caste-based enumeration” and the expansion of reservations in education and jobs based on castes, and promise to fulfil this as soon as one comes to power? In his speech opposing the budget, Rahul Gandhi emphasised on bringing in a caste-based census. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her response to the debate, pointed out Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi’s opposition to the expansion of reservation. She also quoted an interview Rajiv Gandhi gave to me in March 1985. The title of this interview, published on March 3, 1985, in Nav Bharat Times, is “No Promotion of Fools in the Name of Reservation: Rajiv Gandhi.” An old newspaper can be found in some library, or my book ‘Nami Chehron Se Yadgaar Mulaakatein’ also contains two interviews with him. For now, I am mentioning some excerpts from the lengthy conversation with Rajiv Gandhi. In response to my questions, Rajiv Gandhi had said: “I believe the entire reservation policy should be reconsidered. Thirty-five years ago, this arrangement was made to solve a social problem. But in recent years, it has been politicized. People are using it for short-term political purposes. Our society has changed significantly over the years. The social structure in 1950 is no longer the same; there have been substantial changes and progress. Therefore, it is time to reconsider this policy and its provisions. We need to have some reservation arrangements for truly oppressed and backward people. But if it is expanded, we will be promoting very mediocre people, which will harm the entire country.”
It’s been 40 years since then. Can Rahul Gandhi or anyone else say that there has been no progress in education or social conditions in these four decades? Rahul Gandhi, in Parliament, once again strongly advocated for a nationwide caste census. In response, BJP MP Anurag Thakur, without naming anyone, remarked, “Those advocating for a caste census don’t even know their own caste.” However, part of Thakur’s statement was removed from the parliamentary proceedings. Prime Minister Narendra Modi later tweeted about it. Subsequently, another BJP leader severely criticized Gandhi’s parliamentary speech during a press conference. He said, “Rahul needs to ask himself and his enthusiastic supporters this crucial question: What is the ultimate goal of the caste census? Is its purpose to further expand caste-based reservations? Many states have already violated or are close to violating the 49% limit set by the Indra Sawhney judgment. Judicial approval for the 10% quota for economically weaker sections, which was legislated during the final days of the first Modi government, anyway raises the potential quota limit to 59%. In Tamil Nadu, this limit is already 69%. So, after the caste census, is the intention to raise it to 75%? Or even more, since the upper castes don’t constitute more than 20% of the population?”
Also, is it wise to push forward and expand the reservation policy without any study on the effectiveness of the 49% limit? There is evidence that the creamy layer among Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes has disproportionately benefited from reservations. This means that the real challenge is to redistribute the quota among those who are really eligible. If seven decades of quota-based redemption have not sufficiently helped eliminate caste-based disadvantages, how will increasing the quota by another 10-15% help?
The question also arises whether the aim is to extend the reservation system to the private sector as well. This would further limit the space for merit-based recruitment. Recently, Rahul Gandhi’s Congress government in Karnataka decided to prioritize only local people in jobs, but this decision was suspended due to heavy opposition. So, does Rahul’s Congress now want to lead the country towards chaos by granting reservations based on caste, region, and religion? In Karnataka, during his previous term, Siddaramaiah’s government conducted a caste survey, but they are hesitant to advance it for fear of losing Lingayat and Vokkaliga votes. However, the battle over reservations will ultimately be won or lost in the courts. In its decision this week, the Supreme Court stated that state governments have the authority to include sub-castes in the current reservation system, but it also made a historic ruling that once a family has benefited from reservations for one generation, the next generation in that family should not receive reservation benefits.
While the central government has made it clear that the upcoming census will not include counts of castes other than Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and that the data from the previous Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC-2011) will not be released, Rahul Gandhi has called for a caste census to be conducted, for the caste-related data from SECC-2011 to be released, and for the 50% cap on reservations to be removed so that reservations can be allocated based on population proportions.
After the country gained independence, during the 1951 census, Jawaharlal Nehru’s government decided not to collect data on castes other than Scheduled Castes and Tribes. This policy continued largely without controversy until 1980. In 1980, B.P. Mandal submitted the report of the Second Backward Classes Commission to the President. The report recommended collecting caste data in the census. The V.P. Singh government implemented a part of this report in 1990, providing for 27% reservation for OBCs (Other Backward Classes) in Central government jobs. In preparation for the next census, the H.D. Deve Gowda government decided in 1996 that the 2001 census would collect caste data.
However, before 2001, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government came to power and reversed Deve Gowda’s decision. Prior to the 2011 census, a broad debate on caste census took place in the Lok Sabha in 2010, which saw a general consensus among all parties, including Congress and BJP. However, the Congress government under Manmohan Singh ultimately decided not to include caste data in the 2011 decennial census. Thus, it was the Congress government that continued to block the caste census.